Lessons Learned from Taylor Swift

A couple of months ago my wife and I took our daughters to the Taylor Swift concert in Nashville. They love her music and asked if they could go as soon as the tour was announced. It was their big Christmas present for last year. They had to wait patiently for nine months until the big day arrived. We traveled to Nashville, checked into our hotel, and then walked to the venue. They could hardly contain their excitement, along with all the other girls around us. After the two opening acts, the time had finally arrived. When Taylor came on stage all the girls screamed. She put on a great show that even I enjoyed. We had a memory for a lifetime.

As I look back at the concert there were at least five lessons that I learned from Taylor that are helpful to grow our businesses or improve our personal lives:

She uses her strengths and took advantage of opportunities – She is very talented performer and songwriter. She successfully pivoted from country to pop to take advantage of a much larger market so that she could have a greater impact.

She knows her market – Her market is girls and young women. She sings about the issues they are going through in their lives. She is not singing to the parents, but she does not turn them off, like some of her contemporaries.

She stays on message – She writes songs about her personal experiences. She sings about having self-confidence, taking charge of your life and not being controlled by your circumstances. She uses social media and television expertly to increase her following.

She provides great value – The tickets were fairly expensive (still selling out in a matter of minutes), but she put on such a good show, I felt like we got more than our money’s worth. She even gave this dad a treat when she surprised us with her special guest, Mick Jagger.

She cares about her audience – She genuinely is grateful to each of her fans. She sings songs to encourage them. She says that she is honored that everyone would take the time to come see her. She has even shown up at the houses of some of her fans. Because they feel that she cares about them, they support her wildly.

As we live life there are lessons all around us waiting to be learned from our experiences if we take the time to watch and listen. Some of our experiences are memorable like a Taylor Swift concert, but most are more ordinary. Taylor used her experiences to create great songs.

What will we do with ours? How can you apply the lessons above in your business or in your life?